Media reports indicated Woods was en route to Doral and would get a practice round on Wednesday.

"He wouldn't be coming down here if he didn't intend to compete at the highest level,'' agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN. "He intends to play and wants to play well.''

Woods was not at Doral on Tuesday, and the tournament was still awaiting word on whether the injury healed enough to let him play. If he does, he'll get one practice round on the Blue Monster before he defends his title.

Changes to the course and lack of practice could mean Woods, a potential favorite, will face a difficult week — even if his back holds up.

He often talks about putting from memory, which will do him little good on a course where the greens have been redone. The shape of some holes is entirely different. There are slopes on the greens that weren't there before.

"It's going to be a bit of a shock to him, I think because it's just such a different look," Jason Day said.

Justin Rose, who won at Doral two years ago, would rather a course go through a massive overhaul than just a few tweaks.

This was an overhaul. Trees are gone. Others have been planted. There are bunkers where there had been grass (left of No. 3). There is water where there wasn't water.

"So you don't get the sense of being on the same golf course," Rose said. "I think if they had just reworked the greens and everything else looked identical, that might mess with your instincts more. But I think you really just view this as a new golf course. I didn't bring my yardage book from the past number of years. So it's a clean sheet."

Should Woods and his fans be worried?

The last time Woods quit in the middle of a round because of an injury, he won his next tournament. And then he followed that with his highest score ever in the Masters, the ultimate measure of Woods these days.

Now what?

Woods missed the 54-hole cut at Torrey Pines, his first PGA Tour tournament of the year. Then came Sunday's withdrawal.

He said he would get treatment every day to "calm it down." As for playing next week at Doral, he said he would wait until Thursday to see how it feels.

Woods turned 38 last December, and he looks a tired 38.

He said at the start of last week that once the PGA Tour gets to Florida, everyone is thinking about their way to Augusta.